Loudly and Joyfully

Only one woman sat on the speakers' platform when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. Dorothy Height had helped to organize the rally in Washington DC's National Mall and had already made a name for herself as president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and a forerunner of the civil rights movement.

But Height was not asked to speak that day. As she sat listening and reveling in the energy of the 250,000 gathered in the Mall, male civil rights leaders stepped past her across the platform one after the other to take the microphone. When she died in 2010 at the age of 98, Height was credited with being the first person to treat the problems of equality for women and equality for Black people as a seamless whole, drawing together concerns of social injustice that had historically been kept separated.

Height's long-time involvement with the YWCA began in the 1920s when she was shocked to learn that the color of her skin prevented her from swimming in the pool at the Pittsburgh YWCA. After earning degrees in educational psychology and social work, Height worked for the New York City YWCA and later joined the national YWCA staff in the field of Interracial Relations. She became president of the NCNW in 1957 and served in that position for 40 years.

Considered a member of the "Civil Rights Six," Height was counted as a primary leader of the civil rights movement alongside Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, and Roy Wilkins. Despite her background as a prize-winning speaker, Height was often overlooked because of her gender, and yet she persevered, developing international volunteer programs in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America, and modeling servant leadership in all that she did.

Despite the seemingly insurmountable cultural barriers that stood in her way, Height led a life focused on betterment and change, encountering each new trial as a challenge to be overcome rather than a burden to bear. While 2020 and now 2021 have proven trying indeed, what is your heart response today, this week, this month? Are you overburdened or expectant, downtrodden or eager for what changes the Lord may have ahead? How might you adopt a Dorothy Height mindset for 2021, speaking up loudly and joyfully in the moments where darkness pervades?

As you navigate a new week and a new month, remember God's comforting words in Isaiah 40:

In the wilderness prepare

the way for the Lord;

make straight in the desert

a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be raised up,

every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level,

the rugged places a plain.

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

and all people will see it together.

Where do you see the glory of the Lord revealing itself amidst the gloom of this year?

Peace on your week,

Jennie